Moroadi Cholota, who is the former personal assistant of former Free State Premier Ace Magashule, will make her first court appearance next week following her extradition.
Cholota was successfully brought back to South Africa after her extradition was authorized by the United States (US) government on 31 July.
She landed at the OR Tambo International Airport under the escort of law enforcement on Thursday, and was subsequently handed to the Hawks.
Moroadi Cholota to appear in court
After having spent a night at the Brooklyn Police Station in Pretoria, Magashule’s former personal assistant was transported to Bloemfontein on Friday.
Cholota is expected to remain in custody until she appears in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on Monday, 12 August.
She is facing charges of fraud, corruption, and money laundering linked to the Free State asbestos scandal.
Legal analyst Melusi Xulu has suggested that the state might oppose Cholota’s bail release on the basis of her being a possible flight risk.
“We’ll see how that will be done and how the defence will fight. I think her legal team is ready.
“I saw a report that they were already indicating that she is just being used in this case because she refused to be a state witness against Ace Magashule,” Xulu told the SABC.
Free State asbestos case
In May, Cholota launched an urgent application in the Constitutional Court (ConCourt), seeing to block her extradition from the US. She resided in Baltimore.
The suspect wanted the warrant for her arrest, which was issued in 2021 after she backtracked on becoming a state witness, cancelled.
But the ConCourt, on 26 July, dismissed Cholota’s application on the basis that no case had been made out for either urgency or direct access.
Cholota was sought in connection with a R255 million contract awarded in 2014 to the Diamond Hill Trading and Blackhead Consulting joint venture by the Free State Department of Human Settlements.
The contract was intended for the removal of harmful asbestos from homes in the province.
It is alleged that government officials in the Free State received R27 million in bribes related to this tender.
Magashule and his co-accused, including former Mangaung mayor Olly Mlamleli and controversial businessman Edwin Sodi, are facing charges of fraud, corruption, money laundering and contravention of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) in the matter.
The trial will run from 15 April to 23 June 2025 in the Free State High Court in Bloemfontein.
